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Adame
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PostPosted: 19:24 - 12 Jan 2022    Post subject: High beams, fog lights, extra bright bulbs… Reply with quote

A gentle reminder that blinding other road users DOES NOT make you more visible and actually quite the opposite
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xX-Alex-Xx
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PostPosted: 20:39 - 12 Jan 2022    Post subject: Re: High beams, fog lights, extra bright bulbs… Reply with quote

Adame wrote:
A gentle reminder that blinding other road users DOES NOT make you more visible and actually quite the opposite


Also water is wet, and BoJo is a cvnt.
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Keithy
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PostPosted: 20:51 - 12 Jan 2022    Post subject: Reply with quote

Awaits post relating to bears and areas with lots of trees
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jeffyjeff
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PostPosted: 07:23 - 13 Jan 2022    Post subject: Re: High beams, fog lights, extra bright bulbs… Reply with quote

Adame wrote:
A gentle reminder that blinding other road users DOES NOT make you more visible and actually quite the opposite

I don't get it. Thinking please elaborate further.
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pepperami
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PostPosted: 09:19 - 13 Jan 2022    Post subject: Reply with quote

I’m invisible anyway Thumbs Up .
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On a serious note , frost + bright sunshine + cold + sitting water from previous rain means my bike is staying in the garage.
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sickpup
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PostPosted: 22:07 - 15 Jan 2022    Post subject: Reply with quote

Two occasions sprint to mind for me.

A few winters back driving down City Rd at 7am, must have been a Saturday, a chap on a CBR125 was behind me with his headlight on full beam blinding me. So first set of lights, I asked him to turn it down as it was blinding me and he said no as it was the only way people could see him. So the lights changed, I let him pull away and sat behind him with my headlight on High beam, next set of lights he started screaming and swearing at me, he didn't like being blinded.

2nd occasion, after visiting a friend in Kings College I was being blinded by a scooter rider behind me so traffic lights I asked him to switch off the high beam and he laughed at me so again lights change, I sit behind on high beam and he starts screaming and swearing.

As to the spotlights I may have some blame. Odd bikes have had them for years and Honda were selling them as genuine accessories since at least 2006 if you had a grand to spare but about 8 or 9 years ago I built a courier special on a new CB500X which had the 6 LED SMD spotlights mounted on it, within a year it seemed like virtually every bike with crash bars in London had them fitted.

I suppose it was all just coincidence, LED spotlights dropped a lot in price, every man and there dog started offering bike kits and now every one thinks it's ok to mount them up high and blind people instead of having them low with a good spread along the road.
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Skudd
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PostPosted: 22:11 - 15 Jan 2022    Post subject: Reply with quote

I remember a while ago on My Africa Twin a guy pointing to his mirror indicating that I was blinding him, I then put my Full beams on and showed him what blinding actually was and not just clean headlights.
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GettinBetter
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PostPosted: 11:01 - 17 Jan 2022    Post subject: Reply with quote

Most people don't have a clue where their lights are shining, or realise how to adjust them inside the vehicle let alone under the bonnet. They don't realise when they shove a load into the boot it lowers the back, and hence now they'll blind other drivers.
It's a complete shit show.

Let's face it the powers that be can't even get the traffic lights right, they now seem to have a full beam HID in them for some reason, god forbid you want to see if there are any pedestrians in the vacinity of the crossing.

So what chance is there that joe bloggs will have a clue. God we even get blinded by emergency vehicles now festooned with dazzling lights that all but force you to stop because you cant see fuck all.

The worst is cunts that think temporarily blinding you, is a good way of saying 'thank you' when you give way to them, not so bad in the day, but then there are these special needs that buy cars with their headlights on permanently, so main beam is hardly distinguishable on a bright day.

Absolutely nobody understands that the human eye has it's limitations, and can only process a limited amount of light before reaching saturation, at which point there is no contrast, hence no definition.
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Fat Angry Scotsman
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PostPosted: 11:06 - 17 Jan 2022    Post subject: Reply with quote

The lights on my ER-6F are fucking laughably shit and dim, I am changing the bulbs at the same time as taking all the fairings off but I doubt it will make much difference since it's still bulbs and not LEDs.
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grr666
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PostPosted: 12:14 - 17 Jan 2022    Post subject: Reply with quote

Modern cars with ultra bright HID or LED headlights have self levelling headlamps which automatically compensate
for things like driving uphill or lots of passengers. I'm pretty sure it's an MOT necessary feature on such vehicles,
like headlamp washers on cars with xenons to prevent beam scatter when the lights are dirty. For instance there's
no dial for self adjusting the headlights in my car but there is in my van. When I start my car up it goes through a
test cycle on the headlights where the beam moves up then down. In the car I just leave mine on 'auto' and full beam
all the time and let the car decide when to dip them which is a legit feature my car has. Bearing in mind my cars
headlights are so powerful that they visibly light up and reflect on roadsigns and numberplates even in full sunshine
yet I don't get flashed at by oncoming vehicles at night seems to indicate the system works well, the only time they
are a bit unpredictable is in heavy fog so I do switch to manual lights in those conditions. I have to say the headlights
are my favourite thing on my car, they change their beam pattern depending on things like the speed of travel and
presence of streetlights. On a fast road the beam is long and narrow, on an urban road it's shorter and widens the
spread and on unlit roads it uses full beam or partial full beam as and when it deems necessary. It can see oncoming
headlamps or tail lights ahead of me and changes the beam pattern to avoid discomfort to other road users. Best lights
I've ever had on a car, much better than xenons which I've had on a couple of my previous rides.

On my old van the dipped beams are cack but the full beam is not too bad at all when needed, but it's entirely manually controlled.
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Fat Angry Scotsman
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PostPosted: 12:31 - 17 Jan 2022    Post subject: Reply with quote

grr666 wrote:
Modern cars with ultra bright HID or LED headlights have self levelling headlamps which automatically compensate
for things like driving uphill or lots of passengers. I'm pretty sure it's an MOT necessary feature on such vehicles,
like headlamp washers on cars with xenons to prevent beam scatter when the lights are dirty. For instance there's
no dial for self adjusting the headlights in my car but there is in my van. When I start my car up it goes through a
test cycle on the headlights where the beam moves up then down. In the car I just leave mine on 'auto' and full beam
all the time and let the car decide when to dip them which is a legit feature my car has. Bearing in mind my cars
headlights are so powerful that they visibly light up and reflect on roadsigns and numberplates even in full sunshine
yet I don't get flashed at by oncoming vehicles at night seems to indicate the system works well, the only time they
are a bit unpredictable is in heavy fog so I do switch to manual lights in those conditions. I have to say the headlights
are my favourite thing on my car, they change their beam pattern depending on things like the speed of travel and
presence of streetlights. On a fast road the beam is long and narrow, on an urban road it's shorter and widens the
spread and on unlit roads it uses full beam or partial full beam as and when it deems necessary. It can see oncoming
headlamps or tail lights ahead of me and changes the beam pattern to avoid discomfort to other road users. Best lights
I've ever had on a car, much better than xenons which I've had on a couple of my previous rides.

On my old van the dipped beams are cack but the full beam is not too bad at all when needed, but it's entirely manually controlled.


When I was in Canada I rented a 2021 Toyota Corolla and it had auto-dipping headlights which were fantastic. Genuinely an amazing feature I didn't even know existed. Also adaptive cruise-control is amazing, especially when it reads road signs for speed changes.

Also, I have to be fair to my little Chinese 125, the LED lights on it are actually very good, they light up the road way better than my Kwak or even my car.
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Prawny
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PostPosted: 13:53 - 17 Jan 2022    Post subject: Reply with quote

Fat Angry Scotsman wrote:
The lights on my ER-6F are fucking laughably shit and dim, I am changing the bulbs at the same time as taking all the fairings off but I doubt it will make much difference since it's still bulbs and not LEDs.


My ER6n is the same, I was hoping they’d be ok because they were 55w my old scoot was only 35, but pretty bad.

I’ve swapped some LED bulbs in as an experiment only done one dark ride since and they were worse but the angle was completely to cock and the tops of the trees looked pretty good Rolling Eyes

Luckily this most recent working from home period has got me through the darkest park of the year, might not have to worry about it again until next winter, and in hoping to have replaced the bike with something either nicer or cheap to run by then. Got 38mph out of my last tank, shite.
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Fat Angry Scotsman
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PostPosted: 13:57 - 17 Jan 2022    Post subject: Reply with quote

Prawny wrote:
My ER6n is the same, I was hoping they’d be ok because they were 55w my old scoot was only 35, but pretty bad.

I’ve swapped some LED bulbs in as an experiment only done one dark ride since and they were worse but the angle was completely to cock and the tops of the trees looked pretty good Rolling Eyes

Luckily this most recent working from home period has got me through the darkest park of the year, might not have to worry about it again until next winter, and in hoping to have replaced the bike with something either nicer or cheap to run by then. Got 38mph out of my last tank, shite.


I was considering doing an LED swap but I knew that beam pattern and alignment was a possible fucking nightmare so I didn't bother, there's no point failing an MOT on it. Instead I bought the best halogen H7 bulbs I could find by online reviews - Philips RacingVision GT 200's. I got a 2-pack of them from Amazon for £23 something.

I will be putting them in next weekend after the cowl for around the clocks turn up sometime this week. I'll remark on the difference here. Even if it's just in brightening up a little and making the colour thrown on the ground white as opposed to the piss yellow it currently throws it will be worth it in my book.

EDIT: On your mpg, have you got the baffle out your can? I can get around 50 - 60 mpg average with the baffle in but as soon as I take the baffle out it crashes to 20 - 40 mpg. I don't think it's making any mechanical difference, it's probably just that I am gunning the throttle more and picking up revs to cause backfires more because I am basically a chav and love how obnoxiously loud it is.
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Last edited by Fat Angry Scotsman on 14:00 - 17 Jan 2022; edited 1 time in total
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Prawny
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PostPosted: 14:00 - 17 Jan 2022    Post subject: Reply with quote

It worked really well for not much money on my old scoot so I thought it’d be worth a go, headlight angle is a piece of piss to adjust on the N not sure about the F so i keep messing with it u til I get it right.
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Prawny
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PostPosted: 15:13 - 17 Jan 2022    Post subject: Reply with quote

Fat Angry Scotsman wrote:


EDIT: On your mpg, have you got the baffle out your can? I can get around 50 - 60 mpg average with the baffle in but as soon as I take the baffle out it crashes to 20 - 40 mpg. I don't think it's making any mechanical difference, it's probably just that I am gunning the throttle more and picking up revs to cause backfires more because I am basically a chav and love how obnoxiously loud it is.


No I can’t stand noisy bikes, mine is completely stock but still a bit too loud, I was initially avoiding twins when I was buying because they are inherently louder that il4s but budget stopped me getting a hornet.

I’m wondering if the problem is my revving it like a car and changing about 3k rpm. I’m part way through an experiment to see if hanging on to gears a little longer helps. It’s getting to the stage where I’ll start checking fuel lines soon, it’s been getting steadily worse every fill up
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Polarbear
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PostPosted: 00:45 - 18 Jan 2022    Post subject: Reply with quote

Laughably bad headlights? Try an old Fazer 600. It's so dire it;s untrue.

Today, riding home from Quainton in wifies Tourneo and asked her why her headlights were aimed at the ground and she should alter the level. She hadn't got a clue where the control was to raise or lower the inclination. Rolling Eyes
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PotatoHead202...
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PostPosted: 18:01 - 18 Jan 2022    Post subject: Reply with quote

The absolute bellends on GS' with them bolted everywhere are the worst offenders. Like you're flying out of the fucking sun when they're following you.
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GettinBetter
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PostPosted: 08:04 - 19 Jan 2022    Post subject: Reply with quote

Talking about laughable, there's this....

I don't see it being any better seeing as it was introduced circa 2016.

https://mattersoftesting.blog.gov.uk/the-mot-headlamp-aim-test-is-changing/

Can somebody tell me where these perfectly straight and flat roads are? I think you must be able to count them in the UK, on one hand. WTF!! Great design.
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UncleFester
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PostPosted: 08:26 - 19 Jan 2022    Post subject: Reply with quote

One of the other great things about my Chav fiesta is the auto dimming rear mirror. Combine that with folding the mirrors in and if you've got a Sun god behind you they dim down beautifully.

I also know that as you age and definitely with T1 Diabetes your night vision gets markedly worse. I have had to lay off the throttle accordingly and drive to the limitations of my vision.

Speed is taking a back seat until the mornings and evenings lighten up.
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Keithy
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PostPosted: 13:16 - 19 Jan 2022    Post subject: Reply with quote

Prawny wrote:

I’m wondering if the problem is my revving it like a car and changing about 3k rpm. I’m part way through an experiment to see if hanging on to gears a little longer helps. It’s getting to the stage where I’ll start checking fuel lines soon, it’s been getting steadily worse every fill up


Car brain and your dislike of the noise is causing you change up really early. You need to hold it much higher up the rev range. You will be amazed at how it helps your overtaking too. Surprised
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xX-Alex-Xx
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PostPosted: 14:32 - 19 Jan 2022    Post subject: Reply with quote

Keithy wrote:
Prawny wrote:

I’m wondering if the problem is my revving it like a car and changing about 3k rpm. I’m part way through an experiment to see if hanging on to gears a little longer helps. It’s getting to the stage where I’ll start checking fuel lines soon, it’s been getting steadily worse every fill up


Car brain and your dislike of the noise is causing you change up really early. You need to hold it much higher up the rev range. You will be amazed at how it helps your overtaking too. Surprised


Exactly that.... Treat it as a percentage of the total range rather than a fixed figure. Changing 1/2 way up the range on a car would be 3000, but on a bike you're looking at 6-7000. 3000 is nothing on a modern bike.

Earplugs are a must on a bike regardless of engine noise cos wind noise will kill your hearing over time.
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Fat Angry Scotsman
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PostPosted: 15:09 - 19 Jan 2022    Post subject: Reply with quote

Keithy wrote:
Car brain and your dislike of the noise is causing you change up really early. You need to hold it much higher up the rev range. You will be amazed at how it helps your overtaking too. Surprised


^^ This.

From what I have read (I don't know from direct knowledge so rely on what I read online), cars and motorcycles are mapped completely differently:

Cars can change injection variably because the injectors inject directly into the cylinder and thus react directly based on the conditions that the sensors are inputting at the time.

Motorcycles inject fuel before the cylinder because they rev higher and so just have a map based on known parameters.

So from my understanding that means that bikes get peak fuel efficiency when under peak engine load. So what you should do is rev higher then coast as much as possible?
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grr666
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PostPosted: 17:43 - 19 Jan 2022    Post subject: Reply with quote

UncleBFester wrote:
One of the other great things about my Chav fiesta is the auto dimming rear mirror. Combine that with folding the mirrors in and if you've got a Sun god behind you they dim down beautifully.

Have the same setup on my Mazda, years ago I had an S3 Audi which had dimming door mirrors as well as the rear view.
Great tech but expensive to replace if they get broken.
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Nobby the Bastard
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PostPosted: 17:47 - 19 Jan 2022    Post subject: Reply with quote

Fat Angry Scotsman wrote:
Keithy wrote:
Car brain and your dislike of the noise is causing you change up really early. You need to hold it much higher up the rev range. You will be amazed at how it helps your overtaking too. Surprised


^^ This.

From what I have read (I don't know from direct knowledge so rely on what I read online), cars and motorcycles are mapped completely differently:

Cars can change injection variably because the injectors inject directly into the cylinder and thus react directly based on the conditions that the sensors are inputting at the time.

Motorcycles inject fuel before the cylinder because they rev higher and so just have a map based on known parameters.

So from my understanding that means that bikes get peak fuel efficiency when under peak engine load. So what you should do is rev higher then coast as much as possible?


Not strictly true.

Most modern fuel injection injects directly into the compressed cylinder. Thats why the fuel rail has to be pressurised and you can't bump start them unless it's just stalled.

Thats why modern bikes need to turn over three times before they start,M it's priming the fuel rail with fuel at about 55 psi. You wouldn't need that if the fuel goes in with the air.
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MCN
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PostPosted: 03:21 - 21 Jan 2022    Post subject: Re: High beams, fog lights, extra bright bulbs… Reply with quote

Adame wrote:
A gentle reminder that blinding other road users DOES NOT make you more visible and actually quite the opposite



And, I May add: Investing in a built-in Vizor-Viper is a great way to lose money to a Ponzi Scheme
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